The past few weeks have been some of the most eventful in the short history of Littledown Masters.
Building on the success of becoming Half Iron Man World Champion in December 2010, James Gilfillan will once again be heading to Florida in November this year after qualifying at the weekend for the Half-Iron Man World Championships in Clearwater. Gilfillan, 31, came 13th overall out of 1,200 competitors in the qualifying event in Belgium, and only weeks after he won his first British title with an impressive performance in the national event at Lake Bala, Wales. Completing the 2km swim, 80km bike ride and 20km run in 3hr 47mins 15secs, Gilfillan was one of only two of the 600 competitors to finish in under four hours.
This past week the Club also waved goodbye to Keith Mahon and Barbara Walton who fly out to compete in the Age Group Triathlon European Championships in Spain having qualified to represent Great Britain at both this event and at the Worlds’ in Beijing in September via wins in major Sprint Triathlon qualifying events earlier in the year plus. Barbara (pictured right) also gained a medal for GB in last years World Championships in Budapest. Both qualified for the European Championships competing at Belvoir Castle earlier this month where Keith (50-54 age group) completed the 750m open water swim, 20km bike ride and 5km run in 1 hr 9mins 12secs and Barbara (60-64 age group) in 1 hr 29mins 55secs.
And finally, Peter Kirk, 56, became a National Champion in his age group at the 2011 Masters Championships in Sheffield with a winning time of 2:27.7 in the 200m Freestyle. Back in the pool the next day, and having swum seven races in two days, he had to settle for silver in the 100m Freestyle with a time of 1:04.25, a mere nine tenths behind the winner!